Forgive me, I'm young, but could someone illustrate the difference between all these different handmade Turkish cymbals? I've never played Bosphorus, Istanbul, TRX, etc. but am intrigued by the "old world" methods and hand lathing, hammering, finishing, etc.

TRX is the newcomer but their MD review last year was favorable...and their cymbals are beautiful looking as well.

Sorry to hijack, not my intention - Karl those hats are probably the most beautiful I've ever seen, I can only imagine what they sound like!

Everything is beautiful...you can see (and no doubt hear) the manual labor that was put into them.

Forgive me, I'm young, but could someone illustrate the difference between all these different handmade Turkish cymbals? I've never played Bosphorus, Istanbul, TRX, etc. but am intrigued by the "old world" methods and hand lathing, hammering, finishing, etc.

TRX is the newcomer but their MD review last year was favorable...and their cymbals are beautiful looking as well.

Sorry to hijack, not my intention - Karl those hats are probably the most beautiful I've ever seen, I can only imagine what they sound like!

Everything is beautiful...you can see (and no doubt hear) the manual labor that was put into them.

Zambizzi go to Drum Gear/ Cymbals section and find the thread "Istanbul Agop Production Video" and watch how the cymbals are made from individual castings onwards since it will give you a good feel for the hand labour/craftmanship that goes into this particular line of Turkish handmade cymbals.

Nice cymbals guys! This is a great thread for those who have Istanbul cymbals and those that may want to buy some - nice going.

This is what I picked up at Heratbeat Percussion a few weeks ago. Some of you have seen these on onother thread - but I think they have to go here!

The Turk 16" Crash Ride here was a factory error when ordered. It was suppose to be a Traditional Paperthin Crash (CPT16) but the factory wrote it up as (CRT16) which produced a very unusual (rare too I guess) 16" TURK Crash/Ride. There are only three I think - so I bought one while I was in Cymbaland (you know where that is Steamer).

Attached Images

Last edited by KONA; 10-28-2007 at 10:27 PM.
Reason: corrections to make

What a way to join the Istanbul Agop pic party Kona,with style!. Another "field of dreams" from "Cymbaland" and yes I tried those odd ball Turk crashes and they were very nice indeed at one of my several visits to the what I fondly now call "the vault".

Here's another shot of the 22", 2439g '06 Limited Edition high bell ride.....

I really wanted to hear this version Bill the high bell as it's called. The local Agop distributor had only early samples of the 06 low bells actually 5 when I tested them in the Summer. He had no high bells for reference. I'll gather from the shape and size of the bell they deliver quite a different wash and stick sound than the low bell {jazz bell model}.

That 22 jazz Ride and the Signature 23 - nice!
I have one Alchemy pictured here. Right now it's sitting on a HQ drum mute on top of my 14x14 tom (I have no cymbal stands yet - those parts for my rack system are on order) and I'm playing it between cowbell, snare, hi hat (Mel Lewis 14's and muted toms) - it sounds great. I love that solid "bell" sound and it really sounds nice while getting into the faster latin/funk rhythms! I know - it's a little different, but hey, it's all I can do for now - and I'm having fun with it and at the same time building on my "chops" - I'm a little rusty after not playing for 31 years!

HERE I HAVE THE 10" ALCHEMY BELL,
20" TRADITIONAL ORIGINAL RIDE
AND THE MEL LEWIS 18" CRASH RIDE

I really wanted to hear this version Bill the high bell as it's called. The local Agop distributor had only early samples of the 06 low bells actually 5 when I tested them in the Summer. He had no high bells for reference. I'll gather from the shape and size of the bell they deliver quite a different wash and stick sound than the low bell {jazz bell model}.

The high bell is a bit drier than the low bell I had, but it certainly isn't a dry cymbal. The beauty of the low bell was that it was remarkably "in tune" with itself, meaning that the blend of the undercurrent was very harmonious and was balanced with the stick. However, it needed to be played more gently than I wanted to play it (think piano trio). The high bell can take more of a beating, with the stick remaining on top.

That 22 jazz Ride and the Signature 23 - nice!
I have one Alchemy pictured here. Right now it's sitting on a HQ drum mute on top of my 14x14 tom (I have no cymbal stands yet - those parts for my rack system are on order) and I'm playing it between cowbell, snare, hi hat (Mel Lewis 14's and muted toms) - it sounds great. I love that solid "bell" sound and it really sounds nice while getting into the faster latin/funk rhythms! I know - it's a little different, but hey, it's all I can do for now - and I'm having fun with it and at the same time building on my "chops" - I'm a little rusty after not playing for 31 years!

HERE I HAVE THE 10" ALCHEMY BELL,
20" TRADITIONAL ORIGINAL RIDE
AND THE MEL LEWIS 18" CRASH RIDE

The high bell is a bit drier than the low bell I had, but it certainly isn't a dry cymbal. The beauty of the low bell was that it was remarkably "in tune" with itself, meaning that the blend of the undercurrent was very harmonious and was balanced with the stick. However, it needed to be played more gently than I wanted to play it (think piano trio). The high bell can take more of a beating, with the stick remaining on top.

Thanks for the feedback Bill. Sounds like in some ways closer in character to my 20.5" 25th Anniversary ride. Would love to hear the 06 high bell in the flesh sometime down the road based on your description.

I use my 06 jazz bell pretty much exclusively in acoustic piano trio situations where it's blend is superb so your observations and comments follow suit with my experience with the cymbal and it's general character very well.

Thanks for the feedback Bill. Sounds like in some ways closer in character to my 20.5" 25th Anniversary ride. Would love to hear the 06 high bell in the flesh sometime down the road based on your description.

I use my 06 jazz bell pretty much exclusively in acoustic piano trio situations where it's blend is superb so your observations and comments follow suit with my experience with the cymbal and it's general character very well.

I would characterize my 1858g 25th Anniversary ride as closer to the low bell than the high bell- kinda washy.....

I would characterize my 1858g 25th Anniversary ride as closer to the low bell than the high bell- kinda washy.....

I was thinking of the smoothness of the wash and the higher degree of clarity of attack and clear musical bell coming from the 25th Bill. Yes my 25th has alot of wash too but compared to my very harmonically complex dark and evil sizzling 06 with it's high pitched cutting but musical bell I have the 25th is pretty pure in attack in direct side by side comparison. I would imagine then that the 06 high bell is less harmonically complex and more in line with the direct smoothness of sound of the 25th but with the stick sitting more on top than the 25th with a little more meat on the bone sound and clear lower pitch bell to boot. I guess that's what I was trying to get across. Makes sense or no Bill?.

Awesome collection! How do you like your Alchemys? Do you have any soundfiles of your cymbals?

I love the Alchemy's! They are definitely underrated cymbals. That 24" raw ride is simply killer. It was in AGOP's booth at NAMM in January and I had to have it. Everyone loved that ride when they tried it out. The china is what I was looking for for some time. The perfect trashy-china sound! I haven't recorded anything in some time (been really busy), but maybe one of these days I can free up a weekend to get some good files. I'll post them if I do.